Veteran driver sits sixth in the XFINITY Series point standings
Related: Full series standings
FONTANA, Calif. -- NASCAR XFINITY Series veteran Brendan Gaughan earned his career-best Auto Club Speedway finish of second-place in the Drive4Clots.com 300 on Saturday after starting eighth in the field.
The Las Vegas native must have been feeling his roots because Gaughan scored three straight top-10 finishes on NASCAR's West Coast swing (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Auto Club).
"I'm glad I'm pissed off about being second," Gaughan said at Auto Club Speedway after coming up short to 2014 Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick.
The NASCAR veteran attributes his success to his commitment to run double-duty this season, splitting his time between the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series No. 62 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet and the XFINITY Series No. 62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
And with double-duty comes a shortage of breaks that drivers who are just running one series get. As the XFINITY Series takes a break until April 10 at Texas Motor Speedway, the Sprint Cup Series keeps roaring on to the shortest track on the Cup Series schedule, Martinsville Speedway.
"I'm racing my Premium Motorsports Chevrolet at Martinsville," Gaughan said. "So I'll be going to Martinsville and I'll be having what I consider to be an easy weekend all of a sudden because I only have to do one race car. I don't know where I decided that I was going to turn 40 years old this year and do double-duty all season."
Although racing in both the Cup and XFINITY Series can be draining, Gaughan explains that he's learning a lot and looking at things differently than he ever has before.
"It's helping me in a lot of ways," Gaughan said. "The main thing is is that I'm getting on the race track first in a Cup car.
"It's helping me with the points racing. I'm trying to learn how to race that race car and look at points in a completely different way so we can keep making races. I've never looked a racing that way. I've never been in a situation like that. So it's helping me on the big picture side, but I'm racing different now than I ever have and looking at points differently than I ever have and I think it's going to make me better at the end of the year."
Aside from Saturday's runner-up showing, Gaughan's best finish at the Fontana track came in 2009 when he finished seventh.
In 122 XFINITY Series starts, the Richard Childress Racing driver has two wins, 12 top-fives and 32 top-10 finishes under his belt. The No. 62 driver's first win came just last season at Road America. He added a win at Kentucky Speedway in September.
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